August 2, 2013

NOAA: State of Climate in 2012. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recently released the 2012 State of the Climate report. The report, designed to inform both the public and private sectors, provides up-to-date information on climate trends including temperature patterns, changes in the cryosphere, and sea level changes. The peer reviewed report, compiled by scientists across the world, provides a reliable update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments on land, sea, ice, and sky.Â 2012 was one of the 10 warmest years on record worldwide. One of the defining events of the year was that Arctic sea ice melted to its lowest extent ever recorded. The Greenland ice sheet was also observed to exhibit some form of melt over 97 percent of its area during a two day span in July 2012. Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations rose after a period of slight decline associated with the global economic downturn, with concentrations exceeding 400 ppm at several Arctic observational sites.Â . Click here to read the highlights of the report, or click here to download the full report.